Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sometimes ignorance is good

On the flip side, sometimes ignorance is all you need to shut yourself from the realities of life. You don’t want hear about something bad happening in your area or around the country because that can make you upset, sad, fearful and all the other emotions you may feel which are associated with a tragic or painful event. For example you don’t want to hear that a robbery has happened in your area because you can become fearful of your neighborhood. Sometimes you don’t want to hear about some bad guy lurking in your town for fear of safety of your children and sometimes you don’t want to hear some news about murder, robbery as it may not only adversely affect your mental health but your living habits may change due to some bad news. In these cases ignorance is indeed good.
Also sometimes when somebody is too sick, the doctors don’t want to tell the whole truth to the patient, instead giving informing to their loved ones so that the bad sort of news is hidden in order for the patient to concentrate on what is important to him/her. It is like highlight the positive and hide the negative (for a while at least). It is not that you are hiding the truth, but more of it is about what you don’t know won't hurt you (at least in the short run). I don’t mean to say that ignorance is always goods but in some circumstances and for some people, it is better to keep quiet than to speak some fact which may affect them in ways not intended.